Blip.tv Going HTML5, With Advertising

UPDATED: Blip.tv‘s joining the HTML5 party, it announced at the Open Video Conference today as well as via its official blog. And it’s doing it with a brand new player, due to launch in the next couple of days, that supports advertising.

Advertising is incredibly important to blip. Our mission is to make independent production sustainable, and the primary financial way we do that we do this is through an advertising revenue share. So we couldn’t embrace HTML5 in a big way until we could serve ads in HTML5 — otherwise we would be shortchanging the producers who rely on us for their income.

Hudack does not explain how Blip has solved the analytics problem, though companies like TubeMogul have previously found solutions. Not only will Blip’s HTML5 player will be able to support advertising, but it will be “about five times faster than the Flash player.”

UPDATE: In the comments below, Blip.tv co-founder Dina Kaplan confirms that “We are indeed partnering with TubeMogul on analytics. We’re also working closely with FreeWheel for ad serving into the HTML5 player; and with ScanScout for ads (in addition to blip.tv-sold campaigns).”

As it’s become the mobile default for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, Blip intends to eventually transition all of its content to HTML5 playback, with its content creators still receiving the same ad rates as before. And they’re already making good money: As of Blip’s last “check week,” the totals were 77 percent bigger than Q1, with the number of shows earning $1000 or more up 57 percent.